HARPER
It’s unfairly accurate, and hilariously reminiscent of how years of Phoebe’s urging for them to become an item had been resisted only for Sunjata’s singular visit to achieve the end goal. Perhaps she burns it, perhaps she doesn’t and applies to co-lead. Maybe she enacts a smear campaign in his wake or exiles him with her new leadership powers. Maybe she sends a letter back to him that he can burn.
How would he know? What would it matter? He’ll be gone. For the first time ever, it won’t matter.
The prospect is both attractive and terrifying.
Sunjata parts through every worry and regret like a vessel through water, bringing clarity where Harper didn’t think it could ever dawn. Nobody has ever looked at him and seen to the core of him this way. Nobody has ever cared about how hard it is to be an Outlander, how it never stops being hard no matter how many years go by. Eyes thick with tears that quiver in the cradle of his lashes, Harper feels small and scrubbed raw, every word painful but necessary. And when the stream of words ends, he can’t help but lean in and press a mindless kiss to the edge of Sunjata’s mouth.
It’s emotionally charged, a helpless expression of gratitude, loneliness, fear, hope. But reality kicks in milliseconds later, pulling him away as he turns his face to the side, struck with embarrassment and guilt. “Uh, sorry. Sorry, I know you’re not - available. I don’t know what -” got into me. Except he does. His chest caves in with loneliness and burden, and for a moment Sunjata’s kindness had been too much.
Quiet little tears trace down over his cheeks as he blinks rapidly, trying vainly to sober up. “Thank you. I…nobody has said anything that nice to me in a long time.” And Sunjata is the first to shamelessly tell him to fuck his responsibilities - perhaps literally. It’s novel. Exhilarating. Terrifying. “I don’t know where I’ll go but can I linger around here for a while?” Hire men and women alike to drown his mind in their bodies, drink his nights away, sleep in the cold of the distant fields as an animal when humanity feels too raw and unbearable.
How would he know? What would it matter? He’ll be gone. For the first time ever, it won’t matter.
The prospect is both attractive and terrifying.
Sunjata parts through every worry and regret like a vessel through water, bringing clarity where Harper didn’t think it could ever dawn. Nobody has ever looked at him and seen to the core of him this way. Nobody has ever cared about how hard it is to be an Outlander, how it never stops being hard no matter how many years go by. Eyes thick with tears that quiver in the cradle of his lashes, Harper feels small and scrubbed raw, every word painful but necessary. And when the stream of words ends, he can’t help but lean in and press a mindless kiss to the edge of Sunjata’s mouth.
It’s emotionally charged, a helpless expression of gratitude, loneliness, fear, hope. But reality kicks in milliseconds later, pulling him away as he turns his face to the side, struck with embarrassment and guilt. “Uh, sorry. Sorry, I know you’re not - available. I don’t know what -” got into me. Except he does. His chest caves in with loneliness and burden, and for a moment Sunjata’s kindness had been too much.
Quiet little tears trace down over his cheeks as he blinks rapidly, trying vainly to sober up. “Thank you. I…nobody has said anything that nice to me in a long time.” And Sunjata is the first to shamelessly tell him to fuck his responsibilities - perhaps literally. It’s novel. Exhilarating. Terrifying. “I don’t know where I’ll go but can I linger around here for a while?” Hire men and women alike to drown his mind in their bodies, drink his nights away, sleep in the cold of the distant fields as an animal when humanity feels too raw and unbearable.
this is your ocean, an ocean of night
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
